Keep your eye on the ball at the center of the sport: First, it was Jaques of London, then Barlow from South Africa, and now it’s Sunshiny, manufactured on the island of Taiwan.
The questions raised by this developing story will not be answered simply, now or next week. The big question is: Will the croquet world - its clubs, its national associations, and its distributors and retailers - embrace or reject a superior ball with a questionable lineage? The most respected name in croquet - Jaques of London - has ended its relationship with the Taiwan agent who has long produced Jaques balls of various grades and most recently has manufactured the plastic "New Eclipse" through various stages of improvements in response to official testing. The Taiwan agent intends to continue the development of the ball and will sell it to distributors throughout the world. And thereby hangs a still unfolding tale of international intrigue that may eventually affect every croquet player in the world.

Is this a pirated ball? Should you care?

Alan Pidcock oversees the testing of croquet balls for the English Croquet Association and for the World Croquet Federation - and therefore for just about everyone. Every manufacturer with a ball which aspires to Championship level must send it to Pidcock, who subjects it to a battery of tests for bounce, dimensions, roundness, milling, and the like.

Pidcock was not especially surprised to receive in February a new set of balls from Jaques for informal testing, as the venerable company was continuing development of their already approved New Eclipse. Three of the balls seemed fine, but there was too much bounce in the blue one. It seemed to Pidcock that the new balls were on track and that approval would follow some tightening up of the manufacturing procedures.

Shortly thereafter, Manor House Croquet - the name of Pidcock’s company - received suspiciously familiar balls from "Sunshiny" in Taiwan. They looked good. Pidcock was puzzled. Taiwan is hardly the center of the croquet-playing universe.

When Pidcock received yet another impressive set of balls - this time from Don Oakley of Oakley Woods in Canada - he noted that a GREEN ball had been substituted for the blue. Wheels commenced to turn, light bulbs flashed, and the strange truth revealed itself to Pidcock’s mind: Somebody is bootlegging Jaques balls!

But the truth was not nearly that simple. Not to Richard Wu, of the Sunshiny Enterprise Co., Ltd., of Taiwan. Not even to Don Oakley, the well respected entrepreneur of Oakley Woods, one of the major suppliers of croquet equipment in America. As Oakley described it to me, there was never any exclusivity agreement between Jaques and the Taiwan agent and the manufacturer. Jaques did make a commitment for "a large order". That substantial order could presumably finance the changes in the manufacturing process needed in order to produce a ball that would test even better than in the previous manufacturing runs. But no documentary evidence of an exclusivity agreement has yet been brought to light.

But in the absence of a legally binding agreement, the manufacturer - who had the moulds, the dies, and the total process under his control in Taiwan - could manufacture as much of the product as he desired, and could sell them anywhere, at any price.

Nevertheless, the U.S. agents for Jaques have threatened to seek an injunction to stop the sale of any unauthorized Jaques clone in the United States. [Randall Agaard of the Kensington Trading Company outlines his position in the letter below.]

The Taiwan agent explained to me in an email message (quoted in its entirety at the end of this article) that he has always respected the territorial boundaries of his customers and has not attempted to sell any balls of his manufacture supplied to Jaques to other dealers in England or - until recently - in the whole of Europe. He has regarded Europe as Jaques "territory" - but Jaques sees itself as an international company with a worldwide market.

As Christopher Jaques explained in a letter to the English Croquet Council (also reproduced below), "We are now in a situation where our ball is being offered to a number of parties throughout the world" It is quite apparent that all that would happen were we to [continued selling it] would be involvement in a price war with other people running our ball which I am sure you will agree is quite unsatisfactory. Ethically also, we are not prepared to continue dealing with [the Far East agent] and regret therefore, that we are not in a position to submit any further samples to Alan Pidcock for testing and approval."

The English Croquet Association isn’t saying much

The English Croquet Association boiled all this down to perhaps the most understated "news" story in the history of the medium when it put the following item in the News section of its website on March 26, 2001:

"The CA has received the following information from Jaques regarding the Jaques ‘New Eclipse’ which was previously announced as approved to 11th October 2002. Development and supply of an Approved version of this ball has been suspended indefinitely."

The newly aborted Eclipse is about to be resurrected under other names by entrepreneurs the world over cutting deals with the former Jaques agent in Taiwan.

This means that Jaques - the world’s leading supplier of croquet equipment, already without a Championship ball for several years following the death of the old Eclipse composition ball - will once again have no approved competition ball for sale, once limited supplies are exhausted. They have no new ball under development, having ended their relationship with their Far East agent. This leaves the field wide open, once more, for the South African produced Barlow ball, which quickly gained dominance all over the world after Jaques stopped making the old Eclipse.

Most tournaments are now played with non-approved balls

At this time - April of 2001 - only two balls are officially approved, and they are made by Dawson of Australia, the only country where they are widely used. The official approval period lasts only three years, and Barlow’s last approval ran out in October 2000. Oddly, the majority of tournaments run by the major associations since last October have been played with non-approved balls!

Only Barlow could explain why their recent quality has slipped, but the decline is obvious. This writer has recently witnessed some of the problems in new Barlows at PGA National in Palm Beach - chipping and peeling around the joints, bumps on the top, where the logo is stamped, and what appear to be blisters on some of the other surfaces. But Pidcock predicts these flaws are being corrected: "They appear to be tackling the problem with considerable resolve, and I would be surprised if the next [test] set was not of excellent quality."

From all reports, the newest edition of the Taiwanese-made Eclipse corrects some manufacturing flaws noted in past official testing. Pidcock declines to speculate on how close Jaques actually came to producing a superior ball through its Far East contacts.

Pidcock confirms that the "Sunshiny" ball submitted to him directly by Richard Wu "has not yet reached the required standard in all respects". But presumably it is very close. When the ball achieves official approval it will find a market. If players give it good marks, it will find a substantial market. It will most probably be sold under numerous logos of individual distributors, as Wu informs potential buyers that he would be glad to imprint the balls with the logo of their choice.

What will be the position of the English Croquet Association on the use of balls in CA events which have been approved on the basis of their tested characteristics but which they may consider to be "pirated" at the expense of Jaques? I have not found anyone, so far, who will answer for the record this most interesting question. [Informed British readers are invited to comment on our online Forum.]

Sunshiny has manufactured and sold balls for many years

Sunshiny has a long record of producing balls for many distributors, branded under numerous logos throughout the world. Sunshiny has supplied balls to Jaques for its garden sets. When Sunshiny offered a championship level ball to him, Oakley didn’t think twice about getting them tested. As for giving Sunshiny a substantial order, he told me he is keeping his options open for the present, until the whole picture emerges.

Wu is an industrious pitchman for his products. He is turning up everywhere. I asked George Wood, a well-known manufacturer from New Zealand, what he knew of Mr. Wu and Sunshiny. He responded, "I was approached back in November and have corresponded with him on and off since. He certainly seems to be a slippery character. The original quote for balls has more than doubled, however the samples he sent do appear to be superb balls. It wasn’t until I received the samples that I realized whose balls they were. I have no doubt that Jaques will have very good reason to be furious, but I guess that’s what happens when you subcontract to countries like Taiwan."

Will Wood order balls from Sunshiny? "At this stage, we are taking a wait and see approach. I gather that to reduce costs, it is necessary to order well over 1000 balls at a time."

Wu sent an email inquiry to the United States Croquet Association via its website about the cost and procedure for getting championship balls approved by the United States Croquet Association. The USCA responded by saying that they would have the balls tested by Alan Pidcock, who also does testing for the WCF and the English Croquet Association. Mr. Wu did not pursue the issue of testing with the USCA. He later commented, "My customers prefer to get the testing done themselves."

"As a major direct supplier & exporter, we got hi-tech, molds, materials, know-how, experience, injection ourselves, we are quite in position to supply you the most competitive price & quality as follow; NEW HEAVY CROQUET BALLS, ref. CQ-16A. Weight, size, rebound all in Association’s specification, Lovely checkered (double-milled) balls, esp. no spheric joint, Long lasting, one for years of quality players, really a perfect ball! Great for tournament or Championship level."

The mailing exhorts, "Kindly have a look at our website http://home.kimo.com.tw/sunshinyco. Then you’ll see we are also one well-established firm specializing in the same or similar items too."

The Sunshiny company also makes gateballs and boasts of advanced technology that might have special application in the American market for striping balls effectively. Mr. Wu wrote in an email to me, in response to my question about the special requirements of American croquet which make second colors impractical and virtually compel the adoption of striped balls for doubled-banked play, "A solid double-colors ball, not painted on, such as black with white stripe ball could be made possibly if quantity is okay and if mould ready in future. Kindly have a look at our gateball, then you may think it could be done!"

Whether the newest generation of Jaques’ New Eclipse ball has been pirated by the Far East agent or simply and legally "distributed" to other wholesale and retail buyers remains to be determined by the values of the individual observer of this bizarre and multi-faceted story. Jaques is not happy to see the ball they consider their exclusive property peddled aggressively throughout the world under numerous logos. It’s easy to envision the international price war Christopher Jaques predicts in his letter to the English Croquet Association, should an approved Jaques clone be made available to distributors throughout the world.

The new version of the Eclipse marketing by Sunshiny - at least partially financed by Jaques - could capture a huge share of the world market if Wu continues to invest in its development, as he clearly intends to do. Conceivably, the WCF and the major associations could close ranks and proscribe use of the ball in events sanctioned by their organizations. A ball has never failed to be sanctionable for any reason except its quality standard as officially tested - but such a thing is possible.

Barring such action, the "pirated" ball under various aliases will soon find its way onto croquet lawns all over the world, and into major sanctioned national and international events.

In conflict: the laws of business and the traditions of gentlemen

This is an unprecedented situation in the small sport of croquet, which even in the commercial hurly-burly of the modern world is still governed to a large extent by the standards of "gentlemen."

Jaques essentially created the sport of croquet as a popular sports phenomenon 150 years ago. Although the company certainly "dropped the ball" in recent years with the death of the old Eclipse composition ball and their failure to develop a plastic ball that could take its place in the world market, this British company is the most respected manufacturing name in the sport. Few would dispute the observation that at Jaques, high standards of manufacture and integrity of business practices go hand in hand.

On the other hand, Mr. Wu of Taiwan makes a strong case for the market forces that have impelled him to look for broader outlets for a product into which he says he has poured considerable development capital. And with such a narrow selection of approvable balls available to small-scale croquet distributors throughout the world, they can, perhaps, be forgiven for declining to engage in some kind of boycott of the Sunshiny product; they know that the market will find others who will buy a superior product at a good price, even if they decline.

Both Jaques and Barlow can take comfort in the knowledge that there is no way that a Jaques clone can quickly supplant Barlow as the worldwide ball of choice - assuming Barlow gets its manufacturing house in order. Balls are a major expenditure for croquet clubs everywhere, and local clubs are not interested in changing their ball stocks without a very good justification. A good-sized club open or invitational in America must have at least 12 sets for a five-lawn tournament (with one set of solid and striped balls to spare). At a bargain price of $200/set, that’s a $2,000 investment - big money for a local croquet club.

A price war could result in a manufacturing monopoly

At the same time, there’s no way a Sunshiny ball with Approved quality at the right price can be suppressed - except by the concerted action of the World Croquet Federation and the major national associations, who could elect not to sanction any event made with a "pirated" product. This seems an unlikely eventuality, so long as the two sides of the story presented here seem so equally balanced and reasonable.

Add to the market equation the possibility that an approved Taiwan-produced Championship ball can be profitably sold (in quantity) to distributors for as little as US $11.00 each, and the consequences of an international price war over the Eclipse clone become dire, indeed. Could Barlow - or even Dawson - survive in a world where cash-poor croquet clubs are able to buy a complete set of good, durable balls for less than US $100? Not likely. The Eclipse clone manufactured exclusively by Sunshiny of Taiwan could achieve a worldwide monopoly more absolute than any Jaques or Barlow ever imagined. All the manufacturing and sales would emanate from one source in Taiwan.

The further unfolding of this story will be driven not only by conventional market forces - price, quality, supply and demand - but also by the international debate. You are invited to make your own contribution to the story and the debate by posting your comments directly online in our Bulletin Board FORUM on "Cloning the Eclipse."

Letter from Kensington Trading Company
To the editor of Croquet World Online Magazine

Dear Bob,

I wish to address the issue concerning the "Eclipse" ball problem. Upon reading [the letter of Chris Jaques sent to Mr. Barrett] I think you can see that Jaques has been very much mistreated. In our dealings with both Chris and John Jaques we have found them to be men of high integrity and very trustworthy. Because they are so honest, they find it hard not to trust others and consequently have been taken advantage of. They have treated us with a great deal of loyalty and total honesty.

We think it is important to remember that John Jaques Co. are the ones who introduced the game of Croquet to the world and have been historically the chief supporter of this game. Of course, we are biased, but nevertheless, we would think the croquet world would want to be supportive of Jaques in this situation.

It appears that this Taiwanese company has taken the trade secrets and research that Jaques has done and paid for and is now [claiming rights to] these balls.

We have already talked to our attorney and are considering filing for an injunction to prevent any of these balls from being sold in the United States.

As of now, we still have a small inventory of the "Eclipse Premium Balls" and will continue to supply as long as we can.